Recipe Box- Recipe  #7

Company Short Ribs and Limas

Good Housekeeping is our friend!

3 lbs beef short ribs

Salt, Pepper

1 med onion, sliced

2 Tbsp shortening

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp dry mustard

1 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp vinegar

2 Tbsp lemon juice and 1/4 tsp grated lemon rind

1 Bay leaf

3 1-lb cans, cooked dried Lima's, drained

Raw onion rings

About 2-1/2 hrs before serving:

1.  Start heating oven to 400 degrees F.  Sprinkle short ribs with salt and pepper.

2.  In Dutch oven or heavy skillet, heat shortening; in it brown ribs well; remove to 3-qt. casserole.  In same shortening saute onion till golden; pour off drippings.

3.  To onion, add brown sugar, mustard, flour, vinegar, lemon juice, lemon rind, bay leaf and water.  Bring to boil stirring, then pour over short ribs.

4.  Bake, uncovered, 1 1/4 hours or until meat is almost tender.  Stir in limas; bake uncovered, 1/2 hour longer or until fork tender.  Garnish with onion rings.  Makes 6-8 servings.

Serve with broccoli, tossed green beans with shredded raw carrots, warm French bread chunks, baked apples and Viennese coffee (coffee with whipped cream).

 Hello again from recipe box land!  This next item is a recipe and it's in my wheel house because I don't have to bake anything!!  And, it involves short ribs!  One of my absolute favorites.  I have been cooking short ribs for years.  I used to cook them in the oven but now that I have my new kitchen best friend (Cuisinart slow cooker) I cook them in the slow cooker.  There is usually red wine involved although, I recently found a delicious easy recipe using ketchup and soy sauce.  So yummy.

Short ribs are a love!! These are beauties!!

This recipe is titled Good Housekeeping Recipe of the Week.  It says that their recipes are famed for their wide appeal and unfailing accuracy.  They are checked and rechecked in the Good Housekeeping Institute kitchen.  I did some research and learned that the institute was founded in the year 1900 in order to improve the lives of consumers and their families through education and product evaluation.  I have always liked their magazine and was also surprised to learn that they won't let anyone advertise in their magazine until the product has gone through rigorous testing and earns the Good Housekeeping seal of approval.  That is pretty cool.

So...here we go!

Right off the bat, I cringed when I saw shortening listed as one of the ingredients.  I don't usually cook with shortening and prefer to brown my short ribs in a little butter and/or olive oil.  But, as I've said, I'm trying to stay as true to these old recipes as is possible so I thought I would show you a photo to prove it.

That white blob is the shortening.

 The other strange ingredient were the lima beans.  I have never heard of putting lima beans in with short ribs and have never seen another recipe similar to this one.  I researched this, as well, and found out that this is not uncommon in Southern cooking, using lima beans and short ribs.  I'm so curious to find out how this all will taste!  I love Southern food and recipes so I'm very excited. The other thing that was confusing about this recipe, and the lima beans, is that the recipe calls for cans of "cooked, dried limas".  I didn't know if I should cook from dried limas (soaking the dried beans) not the canned? What convinced me to use the canned limas was the "drained" reference.  Anyway...sort of weird.

The shortening melted quickly and the ribs seemed to like it!  They browned very nicely and smelled amazing.  

Browning the short ribs is important- seals in juices.

It's funny because I was just talking to a friend about using shortening to season an iron skillet.  Then we talked about, when we were kids, our mothers keeping a jar (I think it was an empty coffee tin) under the sink and all of the bacon drippings going into that jar.  Bacon drippings were then used to fry up all kinds of things.  It kind of seems gross to think of that now (a grease jar under the sink).  BUT...there are folks who are still saving bacon grease because I found a grease keeper container for sale on Amazon.  If we could only turn bacon grease into gold!! 

Grease keepers still in use!!

I actually have a vintage grease jar of my own, but it's part of my vintage kitchen items collection and I don't actually save grease in it.  It's made by the Anchor Hocking Company and the jar is absolutely clean as a whistle so, I guess, it's former owner didn't save grease, at least in that jar.

My sweet little non-grease jar!

Anyway...back to the recipe...

The onions also loved the shortening and got very golden and smelled amazing!  No better smell than onions sauteing, in my opinion.  Onions and short ribs are a match made in culinary heaven!  I ended up draining the grease from the onions by emptying the skillet into a colander in the sink which worked pretty good. 

Onions sauteing are the best smell in the world!

Added the rest of the ingredients and quickly brought to a boil.  Poured it all over the ribs.  At this point, the mixture smelled very vinegary (is that a word?).  Well, we must trust our friends at Good Housekeeping, right? 

Ready for the oven!

Here's the other thing...I always cook my short ribs covered, so it's another new thing for me to cook them uncovered (but, again, I have trust issues). Also, I'm concerned about the cooking time. Usually short ribs take at least 3 hours, or so, in the oven.  I'm following the recipe to the T and we will see how it turns out.

So, they have been cooking for 1 1/2 hours and I just added the lima beans.  Not good news to report. They are still very under cooked.  I think we all like our short ribs to be falling off the bone and these are no where near that shape.  I so want to put a lid on them.  I will give it the 1/2 hour additional time, listed in the recipe, but then might have to make some adjustments as we want to eat dinner before midnight tonight!

Okay, so after cooking for 2 hours they are still not "falling off the bone".  I have made an executive decision and covered my casserole.  I would say that they probably need another 45 minutes, to an hour, of cooking.  

So much for the checking and rechecking of Good Housekeeping.  But, I won't be too hard on them. Maybe people used to eat their short ribs more tough back when this was the recipe of the week? Maybe the meat was more tender back then?  Maybe the ovens were hotter?  Who knows?  But, I won't be throwing my Good Housekeeping under the bus! I'm still a fan!  

We are now at 2 hours and counting.  Meat still not done (in my opinion).  Just added a cup of water because all liquid has been dissipated.  Hungry and getting cranky.  I'll check back in another 1/2 hour. By the way, I just noticed again that the title of this recipe is Company Short Ribs and Limas.  If I had company over tonight, they would be drunk and hungry waiting for this to be done! Not a good way to have a party.

So, its been 3 hours and I am exhausted and hungry.  I would still like the meat to be a little more tender but we have to eat.  Final reviews in a minute.

I really don't care for this dish.  It was too sweet.  I missed the savoryish (another new made up word) of the onions.  Maybe I'm too used to short ribs done my way.  I tried to open my mind to this new taste but I'm just not feeling it.  

I actually like the lima beans in it (and hubby did too...and...normally...he doesn't like lima beans!).  

I think that there are so many great crock pot recipes for short ribs and they taste way better.  

If you get the chance to cook short ribs don't be deterred by this recipe!!  If you want some great recipes, just leave your email in comments!!  See you next recipe or whatever is up next in our loved recipe box!!